Conveyer and method



June 21, 1938'. E. N. MlLLAN CONVEYER AND METHOD Filed Sept. 1'7, 193'?INVENTOR BY ATTORNEYS- Eon 41m NMLLAN.

wired or banded and Patented June 21, 1938 UNITED STATES 2,121,388CONVEYER AND METHOD Edward N. Millan, Middletown, The American RollingMill dletown, Ohio, a. corporation Ohio, assignor to Company, Midof OhioApplication September 17, 1937, Serial No. 164,375

8 Claims.

This invention relates to conveyers and methods of conveying, and moreparticularly to the conveying of coils of sheet metal such as areproduced by the modern continuous mill. 7

At various stages in the manufacture of sheet metal by the continuousmethod,- themetal is coiled and transferred from one place to another incoil form. It may later be decoiled for the purpose of galvanizing orthe like, and may subsequently again be coiled. The particular processescarried out upon such coils are immaterial so far as this invention isconcerned, and this invention deals only with the problem of conveyingsuch coils from one place ,to another between any of the variousoperations performed on the metal.

It has been conventional practice to convey such coils of metal from oneplace to another by placing them upon a conveyer of the roller type, inwhich there are usually two flights of conveyer rolls, the flights beingdisposed at an angle to each other to form a trough-like structure. Thecoils are placed on such a conveyer with the axes of the coils parallelto the center line of the conveyer. Such conveyers are sometimes of thegravity type although in some cases the conveyer rolls are driven.

There has been a difiiculty in connection with the conveying of coils inthe manner above described in that the loose end of the coil of metalwould overhang the conveyer support, and would become fouled therewith.Furthermore the overhanging loose end of the coil has in the past,caused considerable trouble when the coil was when the coil wastransferred to and from the conveyer.

Another difiiculty'in connection with the conveying of hot coilsdirectly from the hot strip mill on the conventional conveyers, is thatthe coils tend to flatten or go out of round causing considerabletrouble when the coil is further processed. With my invention therotation of the coil in its travel eliminates the above difliculty anddelivers the coil in prime condition.

With the above difliculties in mind, it is an object of my invention toprovide a conveyerof the general type outlined above for conveying suchcoils'of metal, which will obviate the above pointed out diiflculties.

Another object of my invention is to provide a conveyer which willimpart to the coil being conveyed thereon, a rotational movement in thedirection of winding of the coil, so as to cause the windings of thecoil to become tightened and to continually raise the overhanging tailend of the coil to prevent it from overhanging the conveyer.

7 These and other objects of my invention which will be pointed outhereinafter, or which will be apparent to one skilled in the art uponreading the specifications, I accomplish by that certain constructionand arrangement of parts, and by that series of method steps of which Ishall now describe in exemplary embodiment.

Reference is made to the drawing forming a part hereof in which Figure 1is a transverse sectional view of a conveyer according to my inventionshowing a coil thereon.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a conveyer according to my invention showing acoil thereon.

Briefly in the practice of my invention I provide a conveyer structureindicated generally at I, which may comprise any desired conventionalstructure or structural shapes. As shown the conveyer structure providesfor two flights of conveyer rolls, which flights are tilted at a slightangle to form a trough-like structure as best seen in Fig. 1. Theconveyer rolls 2 are mounted upon brackets 2a in any conventional man'-ner, and it is to be understood that the rolls 2 may be driven or thatthe entire conveyer structure may be slanted to provide for gravityconveying.

As best seen in Fig. 2, the individual rolls 2 of the respective flightsare disposed at an angle to the center line of the conveyer which isless than a right angle, and it should be noted that the angle of therolls in the two flights is the same and is in the same sense.

It will now be clear that when a coil 3 is placed upon the conveyer asshown in the drawing, the coil will move, either by virtue of the factthat the rolls are driven, or if the conveyer is slanted, by gravity, inthe direction indicated by the arrow 4 in Fig. 2. At the same time byvirtue of the fact that the rolls are angularly disposed, the coil willbe given a rotational movement in the direction of the arrow 5 in thefigures, whereby way limiting myself, I prefer that the angle A bebetween and It will thus be seen that I have provided an extremelysimple method or avoiding the objections referred to hereinabove, andthat the structure or my conveyer is such that existing conveyers may bereadily modified to perform the useful operation disclosed herein.

It is to be understood that modifications may be made in my preferredembodiment without departing from the spirit of my invention, and that Ido not intend to limit myseli otherwise than as pointed out in theclaims which follow.

Having now fully described my invention, what I claim as new and desireto secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A conveyer comprising two flights of conveyer rolls, said flightsbeing disposed at an angle to each other to form a trough-likestructure, and the rolls of each flight being disposed at an angle tothe center line or the conveyer which is less than a right angle.

2. A conveyer comprising two flights of conveyer rolls, said flightsbeing disposed at an angle to each other to form a trough-likestructure, and the rolls of each flight being disposed at an angle tothe center line of the conveyer which is less than a right angle, thesense of the angularity oi the rolls of said flights being the same.

3. A conveyer comprising two flights of conveyer rolls, said flightsbeing disposed at an angle to each other to form a trough-likestructure, and the rolls of each flight being disposed at an angle offrom 60 to 85 with respect to the center line of the conveyer.

amazes 4. A conveyer comprising two flights of conveyer rolls, saidflights being disposed at an angle to each other to form a trough-likestructure, and the rolls of each flight being disposed at an angle orfrom 60 to 85 with respect to the center line or the conveyer, the sense01. the angularity or the rolls of said flights being the same.

- 5. That method of conveying coils of sheet met,- al or the like, whichincludes the steps of imparting to the coils a linear movement parallelto the axes thereoi, and at the same time imparting thereto a rotationalmovement in the direction of winding thereof.

6. A gravity conveyer comprising two flights oi! conveyer rolls, saidflights being disposed at an angle to each other to form a trough-likestructure, and the rolls of each flight being disposed at an angle tothe center line of the conveyer which is less than a right angle.

7. A gravity conveyer comprising two flights of conveyer rolls, saidflights being disposed at an angle to each other to form a trough-likestructure, and the rolls of each flight being disposed at an angle tothe center line or the conveyer which is less than a right angle, thesense of the angu larity oi the rolls of said flights being the same.

8. A gravity conveyer comprising two flights oi conveyer rolls, saidflights being disposed at an angle to each other to form a trough-likestructure, and the rolls of each flight being disposed at an angle offrom 60 to 85 with respect to the center line of the conveyer.

EDWARD N. MILL-AN.

